Arrest warrants issued against Apan Jewellers owners

Two separate courts in Dhaka have issued arrest warrants against three owners of Apan Jewellers in three money laundering cases after they misused the privilege of bail secured from the High Court earlier.

The accused are Dildar Ahmed Selim, father of the double-rape case accused Shafat Ahamed, and his two brothers Gulzar Ahmed and Azad Ahmed.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Nur Nabi today issued arrest warrant against Dildar in connection with a case filed Ramna Police Station on August 12 while Metropolitan Magistrate Nurunnahar Yasmin yesterday issued arrest warrant Gulzar and Azad in connection with two cases filed with Gulshan Police Station on the same date.

Court sources said following the cases, all the three accused appeared before the High Court on August 22 seeking anticipatory bail in the cases. The HC after the hearing granted them bail for a period of four weeks.

The HC ordered that time will not be extended after expiry of the period. In the meantime, the accused will have to surrender before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s (CMM) Court of Dhaka.

Following the order, all the three accused furnished bail bond to the CMM court but they did not appear before the court seeking bail in the cases even though their bail term was expired on September 21. So their bail was cancelled and arrest warrants were issued against them, the courts said. 

Court sources said copies of all the arrest warrants have already been sent to the respective police stations. 

On August 12, customs Intelligence filed five separate cases against three owners of the Apan Jewellers under Money Laundering Prevention Act with different police stations in Dhaka. 

Three separate cases were lodged with Dhanmondi, Ramna and Uttara police stations while two were lodged with Gulshan Police Station in this connection. 

According to the statements of the cases, owners of the much-talked-about Apan Jewellers imported around 15 mounds of gold and diamonds by “dodging tax”.